01 Nov 2018 Black Activists Call on CNN Management to Address Don Lemon’s Racial Comments
Host Called White Men America’s “Biggest Terror Threat”
Washington, D.C. – Leaders of the Project 21 black leadership network are calling on CNN to break its silence about host Don Lemon’s radical on-air comments in which he called white men the “biggest terror threat” facing America.
The co-chairman of Project 21 – Horace Cooper, Bishop Council Nedd II and Stacy Washington – made the following statement:
Within a space of five seconds, CNN’s Don Lemon went from saying we shouldn’t demonize people to broadly labeling white men as our nation’s “biggest terror threat.” That’s not responsible journalism. This cannot stand. CNN President Jeff Zucker recently called out the White House for its criticism of the media, saying President Trump doesn’t comprehend the importance of the words he uses. It’s time for Zucker to put his own house in order – starting with explaining how Don Lemon’s outrageous statement can stand in light of Zucker’s call for civility.
Lemon made his sweeping racial assertion – “we have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men” – earlier this week during an on-air exchange with fellow CNN host Chris Cuomo on “Cuomo Prime Time.” Lemon hosts his own show, “CNN Tonight.” Besides calling white men terrorists, Lemon recently called President Trump a “racist” and called the President’s supporters “people who will lie, steal and cheat, lie to their mother.”
CNN has not yet made an official comment about Lemon’s remarks, but Lemon did attempt to validate his words on his own show by adding that “[t]he biggest threats are homegrown.”
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